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The bar is unusually high for beginning special education teachers and middle school/high school teachers who teach multiple subjects

This must be where they dump the bad ones. By the way, why is a high school teacher teaching more than a couple related subjects?

This must be where they dump the bad ones. By the way, why is a high school teacher teaching more than a couple related subjects?

It's hard to find special ed teachers because some people can't handle it, and some people don't want to. Special ed. now encompasses everything from profoundly retarded children who need their diapers changed to severely emotionally disturbed children to those with dyslexia to those with ADHD. There's also loads of paperwork (documentation) that needs to be maintained.

Most high school teachers I know are certified in the subjects they teach. In small schools, they may be asked to teach a subject out of field because of class loads. The problem arises in middle grades, I think.

When some of us were in school, we didn't have "middle grades", we had junior high, and those teachers were certified in subject areas just as high school teachers are now. The "middle school concept" changed grades 6, 7, and 8 to something like glorified elementary school, and most of the teachers teach several subjects and only need "middle grades" certification, which seems to mean they know a little about several subjects, but not necessarily a lot about any of them.

Personally, I think education would improve tremendously if (1)we got rid of the middle school concept and (2) quit worrying about self-esteem and went back to worrying about skills mastery.

I am a middle school teacher in special education. I teach FOUR subjects--reading, English, science, and history. Under NCLB, I must be certified for special eduation, which I am, and in every subject area.

As it stands right now, I am short 6 hours in reading, 6 in English, 6 in history, and 12 in science.

For certification, I will be responsible for paying for all of my classes--no beef there, it's my education. But, I will not have time to take all of the classes before the regs kick in. So, I'm picking and choosing what to take.

Doin' my best--it's all I can do. My situation is very common. I have not a clue where all these teachers with all these certs will come from. Guess the districts will just hire long-term substitutes. Hmmmm that'll be so much more effective

By the way, why is a high school teacher teaching more than a couple related subjects?

One of my close friends teaches chemistry and computer science. But high schools aren't the same six classes five days a week, necessarily. Her district has what's called an A/B schedule - ABABA one week, BABAB the next week - and the classes are longer than they used to be. She doesn't like it, because the students have twice as long to forget what she taught them the last meeting. (This is a very ghetto district, btw.)